THE Wales men’s football team will have a shot at qualifying for their first World Cup since 1958 after their place in the playoffs was confirmed last week.

Automatic qualification can be achieved by finishing top of the group, though there is little chance of that happening.

Depending on last night’s results, Belgium may have already claimed top spot by the time they face Wales in Cardiff on Tuesday. 

But Wales have now secured a place in the playoffs thanks to their performance in last year’s Nations League tournament in which they topped their group unbeaten.

The World Cup qualifying playoffs in the Uefa section will consist of the runners-up in each group, plus the two best Nations League group winners who finish outside the top two in their group.

Spain securing their own automatic qualification with a win against Greece on Thursday meant Wales will now qualify for the playoffs as one of those Nations League group winners.

They can still finish second in their group, too, and good results against Belarus tonight and Belgium on Tuesday could even see them seeded in the draw.

Playoffs also had a big say in Wales’s progress at that previous World Cup appearance back in 1958.

That tournament, held in Sweden, was a landmark version of an event that was then just six editions old.

With Fifa’s World Cup already emerging ahead of the Olympics as the highest-profile global football competition, the 1958 version saw the emergence of a team and a player who would go on to become global icons.

The Brazil team at that tournament laid the platform for the nation to become the most successful country in World Cup finals — it was their first of five wins to date — and also witnessed a 17-year-old Pele making himself known to the wider world.

And it was Brazil who knocked Wales out in the quarter-finals in ’58, with Pele scoring the only goal in a narrow win for the eventual champions.

The Welsh team’s journey to that stage was not straightforward, though.

Their qualifying campaign under manager Jimmy Murphy was bookended by two impressive home wins, defeating Czechoslovakia 1-0 in the opening game of their group and a resounding 4-1 victory against East Germany in their final game.

Despite this, they lost the two away games and finished second behind Czechoslovakia, but events in the Asian and African qualifying section meant they had a chance to reach the World Cup courtesy of a specially arranged playoff versus Israel.

This was a time when nations, for numerous reasons, were still regularly withdrawing from the World Cup or unable to compete.

In 1958, in order to retain some competitive integrity, Fifa brought in a rule that no team could qualify for the World Cup final tournament without having played a game.

This was the situation Israel found themselves in after all of their opponents withdrew.

Turkey did so as they didn’t want to be considered part of the Asian qualifying region, Egypt refused to play Israel in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis, while Indonesia agreed to play in a neutral location but Fifa refused the request.

In what would have been the final round, Sudan, like Egypt, withdrew due to the Arab League boycott of Israel.

This meant Israel needed to play a game in order to justify their inclusion in light of Fifa’s new rule, so an opponent who hadn’t already qualified from another region was required.

Some teams, including Belgium, refused the invitation, but Wales jumped at the chance.

They defeated Israel 2-0 in the away leg at the Ramat Gan Stadium and by the same scoreline at Ninian Park, with Swansea Town’s (now Swansea City) Ivor Allchurch scoring in both games.

Wales manager, Murphy, was also assistant to Matt Busby at Manchester United at this time.

As the Wales game against Israel in Cardiff was played on February 5, it meant he missed United’s trip to play Red Star Belgrade on the same day, so was not present on the flight that crashed in Munich a day later.

Following the Munich air disaster, Murphy managed Manchester United while Busby recovered.

At the World Cup itself, Wales drew all three of their group games against Hungary, Mexico, and hosts and eventual finalists, Sweden.

They finished behind Sweden but level with Hungary in the group, which meant another playoff, to see who would progress as runners-up.

By this time Hungary were without a number of the key players who had made up their legendary 1950s side.

Ferenc Puskas, Zoltan Czibor and Sandor Kocsis had remained elsewhere in Europe following the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, while Nandor Hidegkuti was now 36 and didn’t even make the starting line-up for the playoff.

They still had Jozsef Bozsik and goalkeeper Gyula Grosics from the “Golden Team,” though, and two legends of their respective nations, John Charles and Bozsik had scored in the 1-1 draw in the group match.

Wales went on to defeat Hungary 2-1 in the playoff thanks to another vital goal from Allchurch, and a winner from Terry Medwin, setting up a quarter-final with Brazil.

Both Pele and another iconic Brazilian attacker, Garrincha, had not started the first two games of the tournament but, unfortunately for Wales, Brazil had realised their value in the final group game against the Soviet Union.

Wales, meanwhile, were now without John Charles due to injury, but their own version of a golden team which included Arsenal goalkeeper Jack Kelsey, Swansea and Tottenham forward Cliff Jones, and John’s bother Mel Charles, performed admirably, fully justifying their place in this tournament regardless of how it came about.

Pele scored the first of his six tournament goals in this quarter-final, assisted by the majestic midfield maestro Didi.

Wales limited a new-look Brazil attack, who would go on to score five against France in the semi-final and another five against Sweden in the final, to just one goal.

The current Welsh team is perhaps the closest they have come to matching the feats of that 1958 side.

In the past five years, Wales have qualified for their first ever European Championships, reaching the semi-finals in 2016, qualifying again in 2020 when they reached the last 16.

This is already one of the best Wales men’s teams in history and in Gareth Bale, they have their most iconic player since John Charles.

Bale is set to make his 100th appearance in a Wales shirt against Belarus tonight, and as he approaches the end of his career it would be fitting if he could sign off with participation in a World Cup.

Playoffs are not easy and qualification is still far from guaranteed, but the opportunity is there, and it’s in Welsh hands, or at Welsh feet, even more so than it was in 1958.